What if I told you, that this application (Cylay) was the only application you would ever need?

You would laugh. But seriously, how could anyone go without this application called Cylay? Cylay has been around for a long time. It was the first anti-theft application ever developed for iOS and it was recently updated with iOS 5 support! Cylay is similar to Apple's Find My iPhone except that the features that it provides makes it an absolute must instead of Find My iPhone. Apple's application will only show your device on a map, allow you to lock it, display a message, or remote wipe it. What good will that do? If you really want to catch the crook, or find your iPhone if you left it somewhere, you need more information than that. Cylay gives you the option to take photos on demand using either the front-facing or rear-facing camera, see the recent calls on the device, see the current cellular information of the device, set an alarm, lock/unlock the device, backup the device from a remote location, prevent the device from being shut down, and more.

When you open Cylay for the first time, you will see all of the devices that you have Cylay installed on. In this case, I have it installed on both my iPhone and my iPod touch:

If you tap on one of the devices, you will see it on a Google Map with precise GPS positioning:

Alternatively, if you tap on the black arrow that is next to the device from the Cylay home screen, you will see a large list of options:

From this list you are behind the control panel of your device no matter where the device is. If someone has stolen your iPhone, you can use the Cylay setting to prevent turning it off. This way, you can keep tracking it until you find it or the battery dies. That is usually well more than enough time; in fact, the stupid criminal might even recharge it for you! There are even more options, for example, you can use your iPod touch to track your stolen iPhone, and from the iPod touch, you can make the iPhone take inconspicuous photos using the rear-facing and front-facing cameras. This will let you see who is using it, or help give you an understanding of where it is. The photos will be displayed on the iDevice that you are using to track your lost iDevice. Cylay is compatible with all jailbroken iDevices.

Let's say I lost my iPhone. I go to my iPod touch to find it and also, I want to know who has it so I use the take picture option:

Dang that whale. Always stealing my iPhone from me!

Only have one iDevice? No problem! Just like Apple's Find My iPhone service, you can log into a computer instead. You can follow this link to log in with your Cylay account to perform the same actions from your computer as you could with a second iDevice. The Web Site looks like this:

Cylay has so many options, it's hard not to recommend it. Cylay is a paid service. You can download the application from the Modmyi repo for free and it comes with a 30-day free trial. After that 30-day free trial is up, you will need to pay Cylay $19.99 per year and it is paid through PayPal. My opinion? It works great! I highly recommend it to all of you who are serious about knowing where your device is at all times and like to have fun being sneaky using the photo options.

I talked to Cylay support via email to ask some questions about the tweak and these are the responses that I got:

Anthony: What was the motivation behind building Cylay for iOS?Cylay Support: Cylay working from iPhone 2.0 until now, so it will always keep working for all iOS versions.

Anthony: What was the hardest part about making Cylay?Cylay Support: The most hardest part was making it compatible with the latest iOS. Making the system more secure and doing some low-level work.

Anthony: Are you planning any future updates for Cylay?Cylay Support: Yes, we are always keeping Cylay updated and we have for almost 3 years. Every 3 months we will post a big update in the future.

Anthony: Do you have any recommendations for Cylay in how users should adjust the settings, or how they can use it?Cylay Support: Users who want to use cylay just need push notifications and a network connection. That means their iOS must support push and needs cellular/Wi-Fi data connection at any time.

Cylay Support was generous enough to provide Modmyi with $200 worth of Cylay 1-year licenses. This means that they will give away a 1 year license to TEN lucky Modmyi readers!

Want to win?

Follow me @BouchardAnthony
Follow ModMyi @ModmyiRetweet the link to this article with the following text: "I entered to win 1 of $200 worth of Cylay licenses for iPhone!"
Within your tweet you MUST mention @BouchardAnthony.

I will DM the winners privately on Twitter so that I can get your Cylay email addresses from you. That is how Cylay support will provide the free license to you.

Winners will be notified by DM on Sunday, November 27. Good luck to all of you!

Nice giveaway, but how well does it work? Has anyone actually ever been able to recovery a lost/stolen iPhone solely due to this software? Success stories? Just wondering in case I thought about buying it later on. I don't Tweet.

Nice giveaway, but how well does it work? Has anyone actually ever been able to recovery a lost/stolen iPhone solely due to this software? Success stories? Just wondering in case I thought about buying it later on. I don't Tweet.

There have been hundreds of cases where Cylay has helped people find their missing iDevices. Whether it was stolen or dropped inadvertently in between sofa cushions. Cylay reports to have helped hundreds of people get their iDevices back.

Right on, I will try it out for sure. Does one subscription do all iDevices in a household? I didn't see the info on the site. I have 2 iPhones, 3 iPod, 1 iPad in the house. I thought this was interesting, though... https://www.me.com/activate_EOL/en/